1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a vehicle air conditioner, air to be supplied is cooled by an evaporator and is converted to cold air, and a heating rate of the cold air is controlled, thereby generating conditioned air.
The evaporator constitutes a part of a refrigeration cycle mounted on a vehicle and is built in the vehicle air conditioner. However, not all of the refrigeration cycles are built in the vehicle air conditioner. For example, a compressor or a condenser constituting the refrigeration cycle is installed at the outside of the vehicle air conditioner.
Since components constituting the refrigeration cycle are separately installed inside and outside the vehicle air conditioner in this manner, the vehicle air conditioner has an opening through which a part of the refrigeration cycle passes to the inside and the outside thereof.
For example, as disclosed in JP-A-2001-150941, an expansion valve which is a constituent of the refrigeration cycle is installed at the inside of the vehicle air conditioner, and the expansion valve is disposed so as to be exposed from the opening.
Incidentally, the expansion valve has a temperature lower than that of the atmospheric temperature. For this reason, water droplets are attached to the expansion valve due to condensation, and the water droplets are accumulated and fall in drops. When a large quantity of the condensation water leaks to the outside of the vehicle air conditioner, it becomes a cause of breakdown at the outside of the vehicle air conditioner. For this reason, in the vehicle air conditioner, by surrounding the expansion valve with a packing (a sealing material) formed of a foam material called an insulator and pinching the insulator by a case, the leaking of the condensation water from the opening is suppressed, and the condensation water is introduced into the case equipped with a drain mechanism.
As described above, the insulator is supported by being pinched by the case. More specifically, the case is constituted by a plurality of divided parts and is supported by being pinched by two divided parts that can be fitted to each other. In addition, upon assembling the vehicle air conditioner, by attaching the insulator around the expansion valve, fixing the insulator to one division part, and then attaching the other division part, the insulator is accommodated inside the vehicle air conditioner.
Furthermore, in order to suppress the condensation water from leaking out of a portion between an inner wall of the case and the insulator, a plate member (a sealing material support portion) for penetrating into the insulator is installed in each division part. In addition, in the vehicle air conditioner, when the divided parts are fitted to each other, the plate members installed in each division part come into contact with each other to rid a gap between the plate members, whereby the condensation water is more reliably suppressed from leaking out of the portion between the inner wall of the case and the insulator.
However, as described above, when the insulator fixed to one division part is inserted into the other division part, the plate member installed in the other division part penetrates into the insulator. For this reason, in the state in which a part of the insulator is raised (heightened) at a front end side of the plate member, and when the divided parts are fitted to each other, a part of the insulator is bitten (pinched) between the plate members. In this manner, when a part of the insulator is bitten between the plate members, a gap is farmed between the division cases or between the division case and the insulator, which leads to a condensation water leakage.